Coaches Come Out for St. Mark’s Open Gym

New England Recruiting Report | Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Georgetown head coach John Thompson III, Providence head coach Keno Davis, George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga, VCU head coach Shaka Smart, and Siena head coach Fran McCaffery were among the 30 division I college coaches in the St. Mark’s School gym on Sunday afternoon. 

JT3 was of course there to see his committed forward Nate Lubick, who used Sunday as an opportunity to facilitate offense for his teammates, allowing them to show coaches what they were capable of, while imposing his leadership on the rest of the team to make sure everyone was going hard. 

George Mason, VCU, Siena, and Drexel all sent their full staffs to see Melsahn Basabe.  The talented forwarded has trimmed his list to those four schools and has already scheduled official visits to all of them. 

Also in the gym were assistant coaches from Virginia, Indiana, Boston College, Providence, Notre Dame, West Virginia, and Penn State, all there to get a look at St. Mark’s two tremendously talented sophomores, Alex Murphy and Kaleb Tarczewski. 

Even though Tarczewski doesn’t necessarily excel yet when going against big guys the caliber of St. Mark’s, it is still plain to see just how good he could eventually become.  In fact, the six-foot-ten center picked up his latest scholarship offer recently from the University of Southern California and first year head coach Kevin O’Neil. 

Earlier this weekend we gave you the full scoop on Alex Murphy’s recruitment, well the sophomore gave coaches another reason to like him on Sunday and that was because of his toughness.  Despite suffering a painful back injury recently, Murphy played, and played well on Sunday, attacking the rim and showing his full offensive game. 

“I was really proud of him,” said St. Mark’s head coach Dave Lubick.  “He’s really hurt and he played through it.” 

Another youngster who is pretty banged up is sophomore guard Jaymie Spears who suffered a nasty ankle injury on the gridiron.  Spears was only able to play for a limited amount of time on Sunday but is nonetheless already a target for a variety of division I schools. 

One of the biggest winners from yesterday’s workout was Eli Lubick.  The six-foot-three swingman passed the ball very well and hit a couple of very impressive shots, freeing himself effectively and then showing a quick release.  The sophomore also has the same toughness and basketball I.Q. that his older brother Nate has demonstrated throughout the years.  Lubick’s solid day drew attention from Colgate who becomes the latest high academic school to jump into his recruiting. 

Two other youngsters also showed well in Eric Green and Tyrell Thomas.  Green is a first year sophomore at St. Mark’s who comes by way of California.  He’s a little tentative right now and not yet asserting himself but nonetheless shows the tools to be a good prospect down the road with size and quickness on the wing.   

Thomas is the younger brother of Derrick Thomas, who spent time at Northfield Mount Hermon and with the New England Playaz, before finishing his high school career in the Washington D.C. area.  Tyrell showed no fear playing with the upper classmen and made a handful of shots while attacking the rim aggressively. 

St. Mark’s will host their second and final open gym of the fall on Sunday, October 4th.